There should always be an element of discovery in listening to music; in finding something new in the sound we do the same in ourselves. And every once in a while comes a record that's at once entirely different from anything that one's heard before and yet somehow resonant, and which then lingers on; a long time ago, there was Tango Ballet (Piazzolla) and Tabula Rasa (Part), and the Heartland appalachian anthology was another - and, like the first two of those (and much other music over the years), All'Improvviso came from Kim.
Even working out what it is is something of an uncertain endeavour; as best as I can tell from the liner notes, some translated from the Italian and some not, it's a collection of pieces based on, inspired by or otherwise related to mostly 17th century, late Renaissance and early Baroque, Italian songs, generally incorporating a form called the ostinato bass. Then again, the whole point is that what it is doesn't particularly matter - that while the style and form aren't at all familiar to me, it's music.
Pluhar seems to be the band leader; she variously plays baroque harp and theorbo (a kind of lute, it turns out). Clarinet appears throughout (piccolo and alto), providing some of the high points, at times jauntily and at others in plaintive tones; also baroque guitar and various other somewhat exotic (because period) versions of more familiar stringed and woodwind instruments, plus a few of the songs feature vocal renditions of traditional Italian texts.
I've listened to this one a bit over the last few weeks, and it's reminded me of the uniquely ineffable nature and experience of music - the way it can summon not only emotion but, even more intangibly, feeling, and that in a way that can't be described nor even really thought about directly...but simply (complexly) felt.
Even working out what it is is something of an uncertain endeavour; as best as I can tell from the liner notes, some translated from the Italian and some not, it's a collection of pieces based on, inspired by or otherwise related to mostly 17th century, late Renaissance and early Baroque, Italian songs, generally incorporating a form called the ostinato bass. Then again, the whole point is that what it is doesn't particularly matter - that while the style and form aren't at all familiar to me, it's music.
Pluhar seems to be the band leader; she variously plays baroque harp and theorbo (a kind of lute, it turns out). Clarinet appears throughout (piccolo and alto), providing some of the high points, at times jauntily and at others in plaintive tones; also baroque guitar and various other somewhat exotic (because period) versions of more familiar stringed and woodwind instruments, plus a few of the songs feature vocal renditions of traditional Italian texts.
I've listened to this one a bit over the last few weeks, and it's reminded me of the uniquely ineffable nature and experience of music - the way it can summon not only emotion but, even more intangibly, feeling, and that in a way that can't be described nor even really thought about directly...but simply (complexly) felt.
